A Carson adviser bashed the candidate's grasp of foreign policy in a brutal interview

A national security adviser to GOP presidential candidate and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson told the New York Times that Carson needed weekly conference calls on foreign policy so that they could "make him smart."

Duane Clarridge ripped into Carson even further, claiming that "Nobody has been able to sit down with him and have him get one iota of intelligent information about the Middle East."

Carson has been under fire in recent weeks for a series of confusing answers on national security-related questions, including the time he said that China was involved in Syria militarily. That isn't true.

The candidate's campaign shot down the Times report, saying the publication was taking advantage of Clarridge, an "elderly man," and that he isn't a "top" adviser, to which the New York Times replied that Carson's campaign had specifically put them in touch with Clarridge for the story.